Here's an idea I just got recently - I just tried it and it seems to work great, if you have access to one of those devices for laminating business cards.

I took a business card and a cotton ball. I pulled out the cotton ball until it was very thin, approximately the size and shape of the business card, and placed the two of them back to back in a laminating pouch (GBC 7.0 Mil Business Card Size, 2-3/16 x 3-11/16, although in principle any size will do). Making sure that none of the cotton wool extended past the sides of the business card, and that the business card was centred in the pouch, I put the whole assembly into the cardboard carrier and ran it through my laminating machine (GBC 40).

The result was a laminated business card with a barely noticeable - umm - "topographic effect" on the reverse. The theory was that the cotton wool was now effectively waterproofed, and I could carry it in my wallet and always be assured of having at least one piece of waterproof tinder at all times.

Would it work? Well, as luck would have it, this being Sunday night, I was doing a laundry, so I stuck the laminated card in one of my shirt pockets and tossed the shirt in with the load.

It looked fine and dry when it came out, but the proof of the pudding is in the burning, as they say. <img src="images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" /> I took it into the kitchen and cut it in two with scissors. I thought I'd be able to pull it apart, but I had to cut along the sides to get the two halves apart. Then I put the piece with the cotton wool in the bottom of a disposable aluminium dish on top of the stove (making doubly sure there was nothing flammable within reach) and applied a shower of sparks from my Blast Match.

Initial result was a little disappointing; the cotton wool caught fire, all right, but after a few seconds it died away, leaving half the cotton wool unburnt. (I still had the other half of the card, though.) It occurred to me that I should have used the paper from the business card to augment my fire-making efforts. Since I still had some unburnt cotton wool, I struck another shower of sparks from the Blast Match and the rest of the cotton wool ignited; this time, though, I held the edge of the half business card in the flame and it ignited. Within a few seconds, flames were soaring up about 4 to 6 inches as the fire ignited the plastic laminate. I didn't time it but I'm pretty sure it burned for over a minute. (Caution: I just tried to repeat the process with the other half of the assembly and the cotton wool didn't burn long enough to ignite the business card, so either it's not as effective as I had hoped or it takes a little bit more practice. I didn't "fluff" the cotton wool up after separating the card, and I had it lying flat instead of standing vertical, both of which I'm sure robbed me of precious seconds. Also, I probably should have tried "priming" it with wood chips or dead twigs.

So I'd put this in the category of "last resort". (Otoh, it does provide you with one whole dry cotton ball, which should be enough to get a fire going.) If, however, you have something in your wallet that you want laminated, and you have access to one of these devices, it adds virtually nothing to the weight of your wallet.

(I don't intend to try this with a vaseline- or alcohol-impregnated cotton ball. For one thing, I'm afraid it would void the warranty; and for another, I'm not sure how I'd explain it to the insurance company....) <img src="images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />